1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to board games involving air travel, specifically an air travel board game for two or more players, and a method for playing same, which involves an essentially planar game board having a circuitous travel path with at least one instructional message for players to follow on each landing site in the travel path; one game piece for each player that resembles an airline traveler; additional game pieces resembling various types of luggage each adapted for easy connection to and periodic separation from a corresponding traveler game piece during play of the game; airline-ticket-styled cards with flight advancing and flight delay instructional messages thereon; a means for tallying completed flight segments, such as the use of tokens; and a pair of identically numbered six-sided dice or other random number generating means capable of producing "doubles" or a "doubles" equivalent that indicates a player's need to select an airline-ticket-styled card; and wherein the sole purpose of the game is for each player to attempt to be the first player to return to the Start/Finish "Airport" square by exact count with his or her original luggage after completing a predetermined number of flight segments of a simulated airline trip.
2. Description of Prior Art
Board games are an entertaining and popular way for friends and family members to spend time together. Various types of games are available to the public, each with different goals and rules. Some games involve complex strategies and can also require the exchange of money, as well as the purchase of real estate, stocks, other assets, or insurance. Other games challenge the mental concentration and logic of players, requiring them to solve a mystery or answer trivia questions. There are also adventure games through which players encounter a random series of events over which they have varying amounts of control. While the choices players are required to make in adventure games can affect the outcome of play, they typically do not require high levels of concentration or depend upon the determination of a complex game strategy. The present invention is such an adventure game and provides a simple-to-learn and fun-to-play board game which is entertaining, particularly to airline travelers who have personally experienced a variety of delays and lost luggage in their travels, since in addition to personally remembering prior travel experiences during the game, players tend to further enhance play of the game by sharing their stories about such experiences with the other players. The present invention is a fast moving game that does not require the exchange of money or have as its goal the accumulation of assets. Nor does it require any complex reasoning skills. Instead it allows its players to relax, share stories of prior travels, and experience a little friendly competition in trying to complete a simulated airline trip and be the first one back to the Start/Finish "Airport" square with original luggage after completing the required number of flight segment circuits around the game board travel path.
The prior art thought to be mostly closely related to the present invention is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,891 to Lawrimore (1978) wherein players encounter hazards with apparatus simulating interplanetary space travel and each player must try to be the first one to return to headquarters with his or her spaceship intact and operable. The Lawrimore game comprises a board, player pieces, and random selection means. Game pieces have a storage means for accepting fuel tokens, and a player who runs out of fuel en route automatically loses the game and drops out of play. The Lawrimore board has two circuitous paths between which the players can alternatively move through several entry points. Players are also subject to attack by hostile forces and can take offensive action against others. The Lawrimore game has different types of landing sites, one that alters direction of player movement, another that causes players to go into the secondary circuitous path, another in which the player gains or loses critical material for continuing travel, and yet another in which the player is involved in an attack against or by another player. The random selection means identifies the number of landing sites moved by a player during each of his or her turns, as well as the outcome of attacks. The present invention is different from the Lawrimore game in several ways. First, players of the present invention are not confronted by hostile attacks as in the Lawrimore game. Also, the game board of the present invention only has one circuitous travel path and the number of times a player must circle it to win is variable and something that is pre-determined at the beginning of the game by a consensus of players. Further, traveler game pieces in the present invention carry luggage which can periodically become separated from them, the traveler game pieces being weighted to help them balance the luggage during travel around the game board, and there is no provision for players to suddenly and automatically lose the game, such as running out of fuel. In contrast, the exact opposite can happen and a player of the present invention can unexpectedly win the game if he or she draws a ticket-styled card instructing "Return to the airport with luggage." which permits the player to automatically and immediately advance to the Start/Finish "Airport" square. If the player completes the predetermined number of circuits of the board by such advance, the player automatically becomes the game winner. Also, although both games can have tokens, in the Lawrimore game tokens represent fuel levels which when spent cause the player to lose the game, whereas in the present invention tokens are optional and can be used to represent one or more completed revolutions around the circuitous travel path on the board. In addition, all of the designs on the game board surface of the present invention relate to images generally found in and around airports, not star charts or representations of particular geographical locations, as found in the Lawrimore game and other simulated air travel games. Although there are airline ownership games, flight destination board games, airline travel board games in which the goal is to accumulate a predetermined amount of bonus mileage, and tourist board games involving air travel designed to teach players about particular tourist destinations, it is not known to have a simple adventure-style game focusing on the commons experiences of air travelers such as flight delays, loss of luggage, and the sudden unexpected ability to make a connecting flight.